1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to soil conservation, more specifically toward an apparatus for conditioning surface soils thereby increasing infiltration and aeration.
2. Description of the Related Art
Traditional farming comprises tasks such as plowing, disking, harrowing, seeding, fertilizing, and harvesting. During this farming process, soil is often left in a loose condition where the soil is subject to moisture evaporation and erosion. There is an increased demand to accomplish these farming tasks in a manner to conserve the soil by reducing erosion and to conserve the water by increasing the infiltration capability of the soil. Additionally, there is a demand to multitask these operations such that several tasks can be accomplished in a single pass over the land thus improving the efficiency of the farming operation and reducing costs. Due to the increasing demand for soil and water conservation as well as multitasking in farming and land management practices, it has become necessary to design machinery and supporting systems.
Traditionally, soil erosion and surface water management has been attempted with diking, imprinting and compacting systems, and reservoir tillage systems. These systems have been designed for the purpose of sealing the soil surface and/or retaining water where it falls thus reducing erosion. There are many forms of equipment available today that attempt to create irrigation pools and reservoirs in the soil surface. Examples of processes which use equipment to compact the soil into pools include furrow irrigation, diking, compacting and punching, spading and scooping, imprinting and impressing. All of these processes incorporate devices that can be mechanically driven or ground driven and can be linear or rotary in their operation. However, these traditional processes and associated devices fall short of providing a system or device which reduces erosion, reduces water runoff, increases water infiltration, allows multitasking and fail to leave the surface soil in a better prepared seedbed.
Imprinting and compacting devices compact the soil to overcome erosion by creating pools. These devices require excessive weight to be applied perpendicular to the soil surface, allowing the soil structure to be impressed in order to make their imprints. An example of an imprinting machine is the Dixon Wheel Roller™ which is designed to have the required weight to overcome the soils surface structure in order to make an impression. As a result of the compaction, the soil surface is sealed which causes the soil surface to become substantially impervious to water infiltration and limits aeration activity reducing oxygen.
Compaction in soil is the direct result of weight applied to the soil surface as well as rainfall. Compaction occurs quite frequently on farmland because of the type of equipment used, such as a moldboard plow or imprinting, harvest transportation equipment and compacting devices. Further compaction is caused by high traffic, tractors, carts, etc. or rainfall striking the soil surface and wind rolling fine particles across the flat soil surface. This compacted soil surface is commonly known as hard pan crusting and as the area increases downward, a hard pan is formed. When weight is applied to the soil, the soil structure is compressed and soil particles are commonly arranged by the compression into unfavorable growing condition formats or consistency. The greater the weight or load to the soil, the greater the amount of compaction or unfavorable segregation. Compaction causes the surface soil to become compressed to such a level that it becomes substantially sealed and impervious to water and air filtration. The top soil below the compacted surface soil is consequently substantially sealed off and has little water or air for infiltration. This in turn leads to a reduction in replenishing of water in the underlying aquifer which has contributed to the current water supply problems seen globally. Additionally, farmers need use equipment such as Rippers™, SubSoilers™, or Pan Busters™ to penetrate below the hard pan and fracture it to allow moisture to infiltrate and therefore promote healthy root systems on the crops. This practice does little to provide a system which reduces water runoff, increase water infiltration, or allow multitasking.
More recently, imprinting type machines have been designed to require less weight to make an impression in the soil surface in an effort to overcome some of the associated problems. Even though these more recently designed machines are lighter than the Dixon Wheel™ and other similar devices, they are all still relatively heavy and still produce many of the problems previously described such as decreased water infiltration capabilities of the soil and decreased aeration.
Soil diking systems and devices have been designed to overcome some of the problems associated with the imprinting and compacting systems. Diking is accomplished by scooping, digging, and/or dragging the soil which is then left in a loose condition to form pools or reservoirs. Less weight is needed for diking than imprinting or compacting devices in an attempt to leave the soil surface more pervious to water. However, when water is applied to the loose soil it impacts and dislodges the fine particles of soil and organic matter on the sides of the dikes and washes them into the bottom of the pools. These particles of soil then seal the bottom of the pools which reduces the infiltration capability of the soil and diminishes the reduction of runoff Additionally, the loose soil is eroded from the field in both light and heavy rainfall events. The fine particles eroded have fertilizer and pesticides attached to them which then moves offsite and is undesirable.
Another recent attempt to provide soil and water conservation in farming has been the practice of no-till farming. No-till farming is where the soil is left undisturbed from harvesting to planting. Planting is accomplished in a narrow seedbed or slot created by disc openers. Coulters, residue managers, seed firmers, and modified closing wheels are used on the planter to provide adequate seed to soil contact. However, there are several disadvantages associated with no-till. No-till requires the use of herbicides to eliminate competition from weeds which raises production costs. Crop residue left on the soil hinders soil warming and drying, making planting more difficult and reduces seed germination. Conventional tillage systems cannot be used to incorporate fertilizers and herbicides. The heavy residue or foliage left on the land may result in poor seed soil contact thus reducing seed germination. Also, the soil surface is not left in a highly permeable state resulting in rain water runoff and reduced infiltration to subsurface soils and the underlying aquifer.
Most recently, reservoir tillage systems such as the one taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,372 ('372) have been devised to overcome the problems associated with the aforementioned farming practices. '372 teaches an agricultural instrument having a series of multifaceted peripheral ridge members having flat leading and trailing edges selectively spaced circumscribing a disc. The ridge members have a flat circumferential section spacing therebetween. The configuration of the '372 device compacts the soil to form water retaining pools in the soil from the vertical impact of the ridge member on the soil upon rotation. This compaction reduces aeration and water infiltration into the soil. Additionally, the flat trailing edge of the multifaceted peripheral ridge member pitches the soil at rotation velocities necessary for efficient farming practices. This pitching of the soil fills in the created pools with fine particles that seal the bottom of the pools which further reduces the infiltration capability of the soil. Furthermore, pitching of the soil destroys a portion of the structure of the pool leading to early failure of the remaining pool structure.
There remains a need for improving soil and water conservation as well as providing for efficient farming practices, such as multitasking, and land management practices.